Re: [gentoo-amd64] Please get me straight about sysvinit vs. systemd, udev vs eudev vs mdev, virtuals and other things...

[Frank Peters <frank.peters@comcast.net>]

On Mon, 3 Mar 2014 12:20:29 -0600
Canek Peláez Valdés <caneko@gmail.com> wrote:

> >
> > I have never used udev/eudev/mdev or anything similar and, if I am allowed
> > to nave a choice, I never will.
> 
> You will always have that choice, since the software is free.
> 

That's not true anymore.  My USB scanners will not operate unless udev
is able to create an entry within the /dev tree.

Fortunately, I was able to discover a work-around that does not require
udev, but the point is that freedom of choice is starting to disappear.
Udev will eventually be the *only* way to deal with hardware.


> 
> If you want to create a /dev tree for a computer that never gets new
> hardware connected via USB, bluetooth, or another bus, yeah, it's
> pretty trivial.
> 
> Too bad that kind of computer is going the way of the dodo.
> 

Also not true.  We are, to be sure, experiencing explosive growth in
mobile computing but there is still a substantial number of traditional
desktop machines in operation for which udev is still quite unnecessary.

But, to continue your point, we can also claim that hardware itself
is going the way of the dodo.  The way of the future is to have Linux,
and all other operating systems, existing on top of layers of virtualization
without the need for specific hardware concerns at all.

This possibility for total virtualization would still not be desirable
for all. 

> 
> The alternatives will be always available, of course.
>

I hope that you are right, but when I see distributions like "Linux
From Scratch," which purport to give the user total understanding
and control of his system, not including alternatives to udev I begin
to have serious doubts.

Frank Peters